grab a compass…or a cow
Maybe you saw the news story last August: Using images from Google Earth, Dr. Sabine Begall and her colleagues found that cows generally align themselves north-to-south, using the earth’s magnetic field as a guide. [ image source ]
And you may have heard the followup story this week: Cows grazing around power lines faced in random directions because the electromagnetic fields generated by the power lines disrupted the cows’ internal sensors.
I was curious. If cows can have their internal systems messed with by power lines, what about plants? I did a quick web trawl and found all sorts of evidence that electromagnetic fields could in fact effect plant growth, though bioelectromagnetics is a field that hasn’t seen a huge amount of research.
One study “showed significantly greater wet root weight and significantly smaller stem diameter and dry seed weight at the end of the experiment in exposed plants compared to control plants.”
And I ran across an email response by Shireef Darwish, a grad student at the Department of Plant Science at McGill University, to the question “do magnetic fields have an effect on plant growth?” The explanation is worth reading, and includes an extensive bibliography that points to further effects of electromagnetism on plants.
Outofdoors recently did a great post that reminded us that it would make so much more sense to generate power with solar cells at the point of use in the city than to deploy solar arrays in the desert, destroying big swaths of fragile desert.
In addition to eating up the desert, I’d add that remote generation would require the power companies to deliver the power to distant cities, most likely over high tension lines. All of you can probably speak from personal experience that the power line roads that the electric companies gouge through the landscape beneath the lines do plenty to disfigure the landscape and to provide fertile open space that might encourage invasive species. Not a pretty sight. And then there’s the issue of the electromagnetic fields.
It’s been known for a while that a fluorescent tube placed underneath high-tension lines would glow just from the fields. (The effect is observable underneath the lines that carry the hugest amount of current, not necessarily the lower-capacity transmission lines.) There are at least two art projects that take advantage of this phenomenon, both to power the bulbs and to get us thinking about what it might mean for us to have these power lines in our midst.
Larry and Debby Kline. Encryption (The Electric Fields of California, Site # 4) Sears Point Farming Company
Tubbs Island, Sonoma, CA [ source ]
I met Larry and Debby Kline here in San Diego during 2003 when they had an opening of their artwork at a gallery across the street from a gallery where I was showing my own work. They were part of the way through this project where they made sculptures of fluorescent tubes beneath some of the high-capacity power lines that run through California. One project used 30 bulbs, another 60. (A tip from the Klines: The bulbs light up best when they’re standing on end.) After assembling the sculptures, they made striking photographs of them.
And then, in 2004, British artist Richard Box used 1301 bulbs in this installation.
[ source ]
I don’t want to get all hysterical over the potential effects of these electromagnetic fields, but they obviously have some effects on animals and plants. While the power lines may be no more dangerous to your health than your cell phone or microwave oven, I can’t help but think that this is yet another poorly-designed and unnecessary science experiment that we humans have dropped into the landscape. There’s no doubt, though, that at least the power line roads have their impacts.
March 20 2009 06:53 am | Categories: art • landscape | Tags: cows • electromagnetic fields • power lines • science
tina on 20 Mar 2009 at 4:52 pm #
I am glad you posted this. I did hear the story last year about the cows. I actually thought it was in 07 but my time might be off. I have a cow pasture behind my house full of cows (not mine). After I heard the story I checked out the cows while they were grazing. They were so not pointing in the direction the study showed. But! there is a transmission line not far from them. Wonder if that is it? It’s about 1/2 mile away or so, but hmmm, makes one think. You have a great weekend James.
Greg on 22 Mar 2009 at 5:44 am #
There’s a corridor that runs through most of the towns out here on the Cape where the high tension lines run.
You’re right about them being a sort of less than pleasant mark on the land, though nature has been good about taking back the scarred earth where possible and some of the best birding is done along the power lines. The high towers adjacent to the parking lot at work often host hawks and turkey vultures.
Hmmmm…I’ll have to see if the restaurant customers line up in a north-south orientation or not.
lostlandscape on 22 Mar 2009 at 8:26 pm #
Tina, hopefully you had a great weekend yourself! Half a mile sounds like it should be safe enough for you, but as far as the cows and their fodder, hmmm…
Greg, it’s nice to see the scarred eartworks come back to life, and here in the residential neighborhoods the breaks underneath the lines are often the only open space. Half a mile from me we have baseball fields, and for some reason a number of churches rent the right of way beneath the power lines for their buildings. I did a tiny little photo series around 1990 that I called “the power and the glory” looking at that odd development pattern beneath the power lines.
out of doors on 23 Mar 2009 at 12:30 pm #
lost–
aw shucks. Love those art arrays; I think I saw one that was done in Australia recently, but it’s been lost in my bookmark blizzard. Really nice job bringing some light to an important issue (heheh).
What Greg wrote above about providing perches for raptors is an environmental issue in the desert, where there aren’t trees to command the same view…bad news for the prey going about it’s business around power lines.
Also, is your photo series up online anywhere? I’d love to check it out,
E.
lostlandscape on 26 Mar 2009 at 6:12 pm #
Outofdoors, hmmm, the fluorescent lightbulb under the power line trick spread to Australia as well? Two similar artworks, maybe that’s stealing stealing. But three, now that’s a whole genre.
I might be scanning the Power and the Glory series one of these days. It’s all pretty early stuff, almost student work, though I’d still put my name to a leprous handful of them…
debby kline on 29 Oct 2009 at 9:56 am #
Tina, The first work that we did was in the 1980’s and it was then that we learned that the horses in the area would shy away from the fence that was under the lines becausee it vibrated! In our ongoing works we have seen grape vines in a vineyard that vibrated, we have been shocked putting up the works and many many more such incidents. My daughter died of leukemia and we lived across a highway from the tower. Thanks to all for being interested in our work. Too bad about people replicating it but good to get the word out.